Monday, December 1, 2014

Gnaw

Gnaw has been a long time coming. Way back in May, I took a chance on an ad in Craigslist and walked away with a bunch of Transformers for the low price of $200. Here's a look at what I wound up with.

As you can see, it's a decent haul. Missing from this picture is the near complete Scorponok as he was sold before I took this picture. There was also a Sludge, but he was sold quickly as well. From this haul, I sold everything except Horri-Bull, Gnaw, Hardhead and Spinister. I've already covered Spinister and Hardhead. Finally, after a far too long wait, I can cover Gnaw.

What took so long with Gnaw? Well, as evidenced by the above picture, Gnaw was armless and without tail. His gun was included, and his chrome was in excellent condition. I figured I could complete him quickly through either Facebook or eBay. I was wrong. I found the left arm rather quickly and for a decent price. The right arm proved to be elusive, much like a white rhino. It took me nearly four months to find that sucker. The only way I got one was to actually buy a junker Gnaw that came with only the right arm! Another figure to add to the sell pile. It took me about a month to track down a tail that didn't have a ton of stress marks and another couple of weeks to get Reprolabels and apply those. The fruit of my efforts?

A nice a clean Gnaw! Complete even!

The chrome on the teeth is quite nice, and a surprise since the seller just had him in a box with a bunch of stuff on his porch for a few years. I'm taken aback by just how, uh, rotund Gnaw is in person. I had never seen one up close before, and while I knew that was portly, it still threw me for a loop.

Robot mode is a tad lackluster, as most of the 1986 line is. However, the rotating wrists are pretty nifty.

Those are some skinny legs. I mean, way too skinny to support a torso as large as Gnaw's. Then again, what do I know? After completing Gnaw, I think I understand the appeal of the guy. I understand so much, that I would love to build an army of Gnaws. That...that would be cost prohibitive. Unless I'm able to acquire them for basically free as I did this one.